The Vanished Settlers of Greenland

‘The Vanished Settlers of Greenland embeds speculation about the fate – or survival – of the Norse medieval Greenlandic colony in a series of historical contexts, demonstrating the long and deep roots of the European imaginative fascination with the Arctic and its peoples. Moving adeptly between political and cultural history, ethnography, literary criticism and post-colonial critique, Rix's study is indispensable to understanding Greenland's colonial past – and its changing present.' Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford

‘This remarkable book is a detailed account of European misconceptions, legends and dreams about Greenland as a sort of Arctic Eldorado, where the supposed survival of a colony of Scandinavian settlers cut off from civilisation for centuries seemed to offer explorers the chance literally to ‘meet the ancestors'. But in the end, as Robert Rix's impressive scholarship demonstrates, it is a story of empire, racism and greed.' Heather O'Donoghue, University of Oxford